Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Mohawks: Canada sets fire to kindling at Sharbot Lake

OPP & COURT SET FIRE TO KINDLINGAT SHARBOT LAKE - WED. AUG. 29

Mohawk Nation NewsAug. 29, 2007. The June 29th attempt to provokeindigenous violence failed. This hasn’t stopped the existingregime of stale dated colonial buffoons from trying to set amatch to kindling. The only trouble is we ain’t kindling. We’rerock solid. They have the guns and pepper spray which theyuse to maintain their power. We’re the ones standing on therock of nation-to-nation relations and mutual respect. Thisknot on their brain gives them a distorted reflection of themselvesand their delusions.

On Monday August 27th Judge Gordon Thomson ignored hisduty to be impartial. How could he. He sits on the other sideof the table. Acting as a puppet of Frontenac Ventures and theircorporate and government backers, he forgot that there is noevidence that the Algonquins ever relinquished their land andjurisdiction. In full colonial form, he corralled the OPP to servethe short sighted greed of his masters. He issued the order toremove the Algonquins from their land. They have been protestingthe incursions of Frontenac Ventures and their plot to mine uraniumon their land.

Chief Randy Cota has been “reassigned” to duty as an OPPofficer in Orillia. His “superiors” ordered him to stay away fromand not communicate with the protest camp site and his people“for his own good”. OPP officer McPhearson said, "It wouldn'tbe fair to subject him to something. We have to help Randy tomaneuver between both his positions”. Why?

This may be an astute move. The legality of being an OPP officerand a chief is questionable. It’s a conflict between the two worlds. Just like Canadians no longer allow judges to be Members ofParliament.

Let’s get this straight. No traditional indigenous person would killanother, even if they are dressed like the enemy. This confusedthe British and French when they were fighting each other andtrying to get us to join their respective factions a couple ofcenturies ago.

With Randy we would do what President Hugo Chavez of Venezueladid in 2002. The oligarchy had conducted a coup, deposed hisgovernment and instated martial law. The people put Chavez backin. He gave his CIA backed detractors amnesty and told them theyare free as long as they follow the people’s law. The OPP are tryingto justify what they are going to do by making plans behind our backs. They are not inviting us to talk with them about our disagreement about the status of our land and their rights on it. They are instead getting outtheir guns and flak jackets, polishing their pepper spray cans, andrunning to their judges to get stamps of approval for their illegal actions.

The Algonquins are an independent nation, that never agreed to becomepart of Canada. It is well established in international law that a largenation cannot take over a small nation without the fully informed consentof its people. If Canada thinks it has rights to sell to greedy carpetbaggers like Frontenac Ventures, than it better get out their documentationto prove it. We all know they ain’t got nothing except their guns and bluff.

We are always open to meeting people on an equal human-to-humanbasis. We know that everyone has a voice. Everyone’s circumstancesneed to be considered.

There were quite a few settlers at the protest site yesterday. Most ofthem work in Ottawa. Many of them have big homes on Algonquin land. They appreciate the natural character of the land which the Algonquinswish to maintain.

We share concerns about the environment and human decency. Themore they mix with us, the more they learn. No, we’re not gangsters. Agroup of women met with Ardoch Chief Harold Perry. From the beginningthey wanted to act in solidarity and set up a tent city along the road allowance. They want the public to know that it is not just Algonquins or adolescentprotestors who oppose the uranium mine. Solid Canadian citizens want aclean healthy life too. Harold, Bob Lovelace and others agreed.

Settlers feared getting arrested. Many are becoming less afraid. They seethe bigger picture that supporting us is part of supporting their democraticrights. This is the last frontier for them. They don’t have to lie down and letunprincipled corporate greed walk all over them.

Mainstream Canadians remain naïve about the scams that have becomestandard practice in some departments of their government. We knowthat the next move by the OPP and their masters or whoever pulls thestrings will try to put a wedge between them and us. They want the publicto think that we are the rabble rousers. They will dress up as basic rednecks, shit disturbers like skinheads, Brown Shirts and KKK. They willhire expensive spin doctors to manage the media to fool the Canadianpublic and turn them against us. Anything, to avoid an honest straightforward simple nation to nation discussion.

The OPP “Major Events Liaison Team” MELT arrived. It sounds like theyare trying to set up a training exercise or another Chernobyl. A majorconcern was whether Frontenac Ventures would bring in their own "police"or “mercenaries” if the OPP “fail” to carry out the “evacuation” of the protesters. The Algonquins reminded them they are not leaving the land of their ancestorsand of their coming generations!

Frontenac is nothing but a “for-profit” paper created corporation that is beinggiven a beating heart by phony permits and licenses from those other paper madecorporations - Ontario and Canada. These man-made monsters are proppedup by "government" agencies and armed forced. The judge is lying when he pretendsthat Frontenac has a life and then pits this rigged organization against living breathinghuman beings who have been on our land since time immemorial. The judge is infact setting up a massive gang rape of the current and future generations of our people,of our land and even of his own "Canadian" people.

These fraud has to be recognized. these fiends have to be disarmed of theirarms and legs - the financial, military and judicial apparatuswhich are being used in an attempt to gobble us up. We just have to follow our originalinstructions to deal with these monstrously artificial constructs that have been concoctedout of paper.

The meeting took place in the gazebo outside the gate with all present standingaround in a circle and certain ones sitting in the inner circle. It was not privateor secret like the meetings that we know must be going on among variouscolonial government agencies.

When the 2 OPP arrived to be part of a peace meeting, Inspector McPhearsonwas told to get rid of his gun. Nobody else came armed except with our will todeal fairly. He went in a huff and made a great show of locking his gun belt inthe trunk of his car. As every mother knows, kids sometime fuss about behavingthemselves in mixed company. By the way, the front wheel of his cruiser wassticking out onto the road ready to be accidentally hit by a passerby. He notonly flunked “Negotiations 101” and PVO. He did not learn how to park.

The meeting opened with a smudge, pipe smoking and talking feather. ChiefDoreen, Chief Paula Sherman, Lily, Mitchell, Harold, Don, Bob, a Native womanwho is a lawyer offering pro bono, OPP McPhearson and OPP Mike Forrestertook part. The Algonquin warriors stood in the outer circle and spoke up wheneverthey had something to say.

From the beginning, McPhearson said, “We will tell you ahead of time of anyactions we may take or any change in plan”. Friends and supporters worldwide,this makes it obvious that he and his managers intend to continue violating ourrights by making decisions without consulting us. What he really meant was “Wereserve the right to surprise attack you any time of the day or night like we did atSix Nations, but this time we will win. You won't know what hit you and we reservethe right to change the plan at any time”. In other words, he is totally ignorant of bothinternational law and the support that has been given to this standard of consultation by the Supreme Court of Canada over the last 20 years.

The sheriff was to deliver the revised injunction as early as Tuesday afternoon,August 28th. OPP Mike Forrester told us, “I give you my word, when anythingchanges, I’ll make sure a message gets to you”. Yeah! Sure, we’ve heard seenthat before. Their message is usually in the form of tear gas, pepper spray andpolice invasions. In OPP sneak-speak, this means, “My word means nothing. You can count on it. We intend to use you for target practice, just like we did withDudley George”. This time they don’t want to get caught. Their game has notchanged. Their still playing “cowboys and injuns” and “might makes right”consultation.

He said, “We are bound by the law but the judge gave us discretionary options”. Isn’t this a contradiction? This means, “We can do what we want. We’ll be niceif you obey our commands. Or we can blast you from here to kingdom come”. Do they think we don’t know a threat when we see one?

He said, “We will do whatever it takes to maintain the peacebecause we are peacekeepers”!! [So what’s with the guns, tasers, pepperspray and clubs to beat us with?] He kept referring to the OPP as “my "organization"! It almost sounded like “my orgasm. He is power drunk and has no understanding ofthe original history of the police in his culture. They were meant to protect peoplefrom rowdies, not to become rowdies themselves. The OPP neither consults norserves the public. They don’t understand that we are an egalitarian society whereeveryone has a voice in the consensual decision making process.

They take orders from a private disreputable greedy company that is destroying theenvironment and manufacturing weapons and dangerous material which is strictlyillegal according to international law. Why should any state protect armsmanufacturers and environmental terrorists?

He said he wants to see “a resolution that everyone can live with”. This means hewants us to live under the heel of his boot. They should get their butts out of herewhere it doesn’t belong.

They can stop breaking Algonquin law, Canadian law and international law. Wecan live with that! He told us, “We're not going to sneak in, we're not coming inmasses”. This means, “We learned the lessons of Montibello. We are going tosend in a few guys who will be wearing cheap sneakers, not standard issue policeboots. They always say the opposite of what they are going to do. The OPP willsneak in and will come in masses.

Chief Doreen Davis hit him with questions that shook McPhearson. He admittedhe hadn't read the Order that he claimed to be following. He is ready to follow hisown discretion. [Can this guy read?]. “I need a lawyer to interpret it for me” [so I’llknow what I’m doing]. He got smaller and smaller as more question were pelted athim.

Chief Doreen asked him about the settlers being arrested outside of the gates. McPhearson said, “All I know is there's a big difference which side of the fenceyou're on”. He admitted to being biased.

Chief Doreen wanted to know if anyone inside could go out for medicalappointments. He said, “I don’t know”. This is a serious concern for the peoplethere. Many are sick from the environmental contamination by previous uraniummining and other illegal ventures.

As Chief Doreen pointed out, nothing has changed since Caledonia andIpperwash. The colonizers haven’t learned a thing. They are bent on imposingtheir paradigms on us. He was speechless. For all his confusion McPhearsonprobably wants to be a good guy. Too bad his “Machiavellian” handlers are toochicken to show their faces to us.

The Algonquins reminded them that Canada as the other party to the disputecannot be the judge, jury and executioner. It violates the basic principle ofnation to nation relations and the rule of law as defined and agreed too by thenations of the world. Any dispute must be done before a neutral third party thathas no vested interest in the outcome.

One man tried to nail McPhearson, “How much time will you give us before youinvade and attack? 20 minutes?”

McPhearson eloquently remarked, "We appreciate the unique dynamic of thissituation. But there has to be some kind of end to this, some kind of resolution”. There is! Stop your lawlessness. Stop being the muscle for fictional characterslike Frontenac Ventures Corporation. Is he suggesting that they are all going togo back to where they came from? Henh! We bet they want to go back toignoring us like they did during the theft of our land they called “settlement”.

The situation is critical. This is an international crisis. Please call OntarioPremier McGuinty's office at 416-325-1941 and Prime Minister Stephen Harperat pm@pm.gc.ca demanding they pull his cops off at the Robertsville Mine site onAlgonquin territory near Sharbot Lake. Stop this before it becomes “militarized”. He ignores the Ardoch Algonquin chiefs who have repeatedly asked for a meeting.

1 comment:

Eli
said...

"Let’s get this straight. No traditional indigenous person would killanother, even if they are dressed like the enemy. This confusedthe British and French when they were fighting each other andtrying to get us to join their respective factions a couple ofcenturies ago. "

Yo, I'm sorry but this is absurd. Firstly you are drawing on a belief system that is highly terminal and one that promotes pan-indianness by lumping all indigenous nations together as being the same. I guess you have never heard of the Haida, or the Mayans and Aztecs, and I guess you haven't read a lot on indigenous systems of law prior to contact, when in some cases plains indians societies killed people because they did not follow protocol of the buffalo hunt. I respect your words against the colonizers, but you need to check yourself on this issue because it is not true and it makes your argument weak. What you might want to do is name the indigenous nations you are referring to in your example.

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Censored News is published by censored journalist Brenda Norrell. A journalist for 27 years, Brenda lived on the Navajo Nation for 18 years, writing for Navajo Times, AP, USA Today, Lakota Times and other American Indian publications. After being censored and then terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006, she began the Censored Blog to document the most censored issues. She currently serves as human rights editor for the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague and contributor to Sri Lanka Guardian, Narco News and CounterPunch. She was cohost of the 5-month Longest Walk Talk Radio across America, with Earthcycles Producer Govinda Dalton in 2008: www.earthcycles.net/COPYRIGHTS All material is copyrighted by the author or photographer. Please contact each contributor for reprint permission. brendanorrell@gmail.comAudios may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.

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